Lycée Gustave Jaume

Pierrelatte, France • 2005-2006

My teach­ing career started Octo­ber 2005 in Pier­re­latte, in the depart­ment of Drôme, France. This lit­tle town is at the gate­way to Provence, where the beau­ti­ful Rhône Val­ley opens to the coun­tryside I grew up read­ing about in Marcel Pagnol’s Sou­venirs d’enfance tril­ogy. My own aca­d­e­mic pur­suits just prior to mov­ing there were rich with appre­ci­a­tion of French music, art, drama, food, cul­ture, and a lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture back­ground that led me to spe­cial­ize in Medieval French and the poetry of the trou­ba­dours. On hear­ing that I would be placed to teach so close to where the great love between trou­ba­dour Raim­baut d’Aurenga and the Countess Beat­riz de Dia blos­somed, I was inspired and eager to explore a part of the coun­try I had so ardently dis­cov­ered through read­ing. I arrived with high expec­ta­tions, and left after 9 months feel­ing as though I had walked in Pagnol’s foot­steps teach­ing, writ­ing, tast­ing and explor­ing the splen­dour — not to men­tion lis­ten­ing to the hum of cicadas.